The Simon Wiesenthal Centre is urging the Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, to remove Alexis Rafael Navarro Rojas, Venezuela’s Ambassador to Russia, following antisemitic statements he made to a Moscow daily.

In its May 15, 2008 edition, Moscow News published an interview in which Ambassador Navarro Rojas said that among those involved in a failed coup d’etat of April 11, 2002, aimed at overthrowing Hugo Chávez, there were "many Mossad snipers, who were Venezuelan citizens but Jews."

In a letter to the minister, Dr. Shimon Samuels (Director for International Relations of the Wiesenthal Center) and Sergio Widder (Latin American Representative) called Navarro Rojas’ statements outrageous. "It seems that, for the ambassador, Venezuelan Jews belong to a different category of citizens, which should be particularly singled out."

"This is not the first time that high officials of the government of Venezuela make anti-Jewish comments. The words of Ambassador Navarro Rojas are racist, and incite to violence against Jews, not only in Venezuela, but throughout the region. His words are inspired by such conspiracy theories as the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", the libel that was first published in 1905, in czarist Russia, and is the Bible for contemporary antisemites. The ambassador of a country that proclaims itself the architect of a 21st century Socialism spouts the same fascist sources that were responsible for millions of Russian deaths in the 20th century,” the added.

"Mr. Minister, at this week’s OAS General Assembly in Medellin, you defended Venezuela’s democratic standards. We thus expect Ambassador Navarro Rojas be immediately recalled for his undiplomatic, offensive and racist assault on your country’s reputation,” concluded Samuels and Widder.